Links - 14th July 2018 (2)

Reed Students Say Humanities 110 Should Not Include White or European Authors - "Reedies Against Racism, a student group at Reed College, is demanding that the school's Humanities 110 course remove all European texts and replace them with non-European reading materials as "reparations for Humanities 110's history of erasing the histories of people of color, especially black people.""
Anti-racism = racism

Ex-ISD Director: Some detained were “less implicated” and Coldstore did help LKY to consolidate his position

Teenager’s Prom Dress Stirs Furor in U.S. — but Not in China - The New York Times - "When Keziah Daum wore a Chinese-style dress to her high school prom in Utah, it set off an uproar — but not because of its tight fit or thigh-high slit... Far from being critical of Ms. Daum, who is not Chinese, many people in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan proclaimed her choice of the traditional high-necked dress as a victory for Chinese culture... If anything, the uproar surrounding Ms. Daum’s dress prompted many Chinese to reflect on examples of cultural appropriation in their own country. “So does that mean when we celebrate Christmas and Halloween it’s also cultural appropriation?” asked one WeChat user, Larissa. Others were quick to point out that the qipao, as it is known in China, was introduced by the Manchus, an ethnic minority group from China’s northeast — implying that the garment was itself appropriated by the majority Han Chinese. In its original form, the dress was worn in a baggy style, mostly by upper-class women during the Qing dynasty, which ruled China for more than 250 years, until 1912. It was only in the 1920s and ’30s, when Western influence began seeping into China, that the qipao was reinvented to become the seductive, body-hugging dress that many think of today... “Nowadays, if you see a woman wearing a qipao, she’s probably a waitress in a restaurant or a bride.”"
Maybe Asian Asians must be silenced to appease (some) Asian Americans

Melania Trump, White Hat - The New York Times - "It’s possible Mrs. Trump is not aware of this and just, well, liked the idea of the decorum of a hat. Except she has something of a history of using white suits to send what seem like fairly pointed messages; see her decision to wear white — associated with women’s rights in the form of the suffragist movement, as well as Hillary Clinton — to her husband’s first State of the Union address, which happened to be her first high-profile appearance with him after the Stormy Daniels scandal broke."
In other contexts, it's said that it's sexism to question women's sartorial choices

The 10,000 Kidnapped Boys of Boko Haram - WSJ - "While the world focused on Boko Haram’s mass kidnappings of women and girls, the Islamist group was stealing an even greater number of boys. Over the past three years, Boko Haram has kidnapped more than 10,000 boys and trained them in boot camps in abandoned villages and forest hide-outs, according to government officials in Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon, and to Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group... The children, none older than 4, watched jihadist propaganda videos and rehearsed a game called “suicide bomber” where they ripped open sacks of sand strapped to their torsos.
Kidnap 276 girls and everyone loses their minds. Kidnap 10,000 boys and no one cares
This is what male privilege looks like

'Catastrophe': French museum discovers half of its collection are fakes - "The tiny 8,000-strong community of Elne just outside Perpignan re-opened its Etienne Terrus Museum, dedicated to the works of the local artist who was born in 1857 and died in 1922, on Friday after extensive renovation work."

Bokhari: 5 Examples of What Facebook Considers 'Hate Speech' - "Facebook seems unable to distinguish between hate speech and mockery of hate speech. Articles from Cosmpolitan, that would normally be allowed on Facebook, suddenly trigger content moderation if an image of their headline is posted instead. And in the case of videos, Perry’s page was targeted by Facebook for featuring content that embarrasses the left in one case, and featured an unfolding news story in another."

ST ignores real world case studies and and publishes propaganda about the capabilities of former generals - "The mindset of former military men may also have been too dogmatic to function in the real world. Former colonel Lim Chin – CEO of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) – was filmed shouting at footballers, demanding that they "do not ever question the chairman on his role and responsibility". Under the FAS, Singapore’s ranking in the FIFA league dropped to an all-time low, in the same league as Cuba and Kosovo. It was later revealed that the FAS spent only $70,000 to help develop the sport compared despite its revenue of $35.8 million and $1.6 million paid to key management personnel."

Aaron Traywick's Death Puts Biohacking at a Crossroads - "At just 28, Traywick was among the most infamous figures in the world of biohacking—the grandiose CEO of a tiny company called Ascendance Biomedical whose goal was to develop and test new gene therapies without the expense and rigor of clinical trials or the oversight of the FDA. Traywick wanted to cure cancer, herpes, HIV, and even aging, and he wanted to do it without having to deal with the rules and safety precautions of regulators and industry standards... To “walk around” regulators, Ascendance and other biohackers typically rely on testing products on themselves... At another conference in February 2018, Traywick dropped trou on stage and injected into his bare left thigh an experimental herpes treatment developed by his company"

DISGRUNTLED NUT - "Strong women don’t mew about manspreading, air-conditioning, or demand that men #giveyourmoneytowomen. Most of all, strong women, like any strong, compassionate human being, have the milk of human kindness in their hearts, they value the lives of men, their challenges, their future. They love men, and don’t find it a burden or taking anything away from protecting THEIR OWN rights to fight for them. Most of all, Strong women are not those who sit terrified of clapping, a man greeting them, or even catcalling, and they do NOT have to put anyone else down to make themselves feel stronger, or appear better.
No, anon, I don’t fear strong women. I value them. The ones I despise are these pusillanimous hypocrites who demand respect but show nothing worth respecting, and give no respect to others. Most of today’s feminist mouthpieces are NOT strong women. In fact I don’t think they’ve progressed beyond childhood."

Treadmills Were Meant to Be Atonement Machines - "Two hundred years ago, the treadmill was invented in England as a prison rehabilitation device. It was meant to cause the incarcerated to suffer and learn from their sweat. It would mill a bit of corn or pump some water as a bonus."

German minister says too many people are speaking English in Berlin - BBC Newsbeat - "Jens Spahn, who some people think could replace current Chancellor Angela Merkel, is the junior finance minister. "It drives me up the wall the way waiters in Berlin restaurants only speak English," he told a German newspaper. He says Germans are too relaxed on the issue and that it would never happen in Paris. Mr Spahn thinks "co-existence can only work in Germany if we all speak German" and wants all immigrants to learn the language. Areas in Berlin like Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg are home to lots of American expats and they have restaurants and bars with staff recruited from across Europe... Speaking English is also seen as an important skill in Germany, with most children learning it as soon as they start primary school."

Amazon warehouse workers tell us their horror stories - "A former Amazon warehouse worker described being stopped in his tracks by an "awful smell" emanating from the trash cans. The stench, he said, was "unmistakable" and led him to one conclusion: His coworkers were so worried about taking too long on a bathroom break that they had resorted to urinating in the bin... The warehouse employees' stories paint a picture of constant surveillance and a crippling fear of missing targets... things like spending time talking to coworkers, going to get a drink, or even taking too long to find a package are billed as "time off task," too much of which leads to penalty points for an employee. Get enough of those, and you're fired. That — combined with security cameras dotting Amazon's warehouses, its airport-style security checks, and short breaks — makes employees feel like "robots," they said. And it's all in the service of getting those parcels out faster."

‘Never happened’: 26 years later, two men to be cleared of rape as accuser recants story - "The woman, dirty, disheveled and in tears, ran over to a patrol car parked along a Harlem street in the early morning of Jan. 18, 1991. She told police officers she had been kidnapped at knifepoint near her home in Queens and raped by three black men, whom she identified. Before the end of the month, police arrested two of the men she had named — Gregory Counts, then 19, and VanDyke Perry, then 21. The third man was never caught. Investigators had no physical evidence connecting the men to the crime or the crime scenes. Semen recovered from the woman, identified in court records as “the complainant,” did not belong to the accused. The prosecution’s case relied solely on her testimony, which was inconsistent, court records show. Defence attorneys argued that the case was poorly investigated and that the complainant, a recovering crack addict, fabricated the story to protect her boyfriend, who shot Perry two months earlier and was wanted by the police, court records show. Still, in 1992, a jury convicted Counts and Perry on all counts except for the weapons charges."

Feminist Demands Tech Companies Find And Fire "Incel" Employees - "Instead of suggesting that these men receive medical help... angry feminists are taking to Twitter and other forms of social media to demand that incels be stripped of their privileges and removed from the face of the earth, regardless if a crime has been committed or not. One feminist, in particular, Ellen K. Pao (famous for stuff that interests no one) took to Twitter to demand action"
I'm sure this will debunk incels' notions that women in general and feminists in particular are the enemy
Seen elsewhere: "Aren’t we still more likely to get killed by toddlers than by Incels?"

Siraitia grosvenorii - Wikipedia - "Siraitia grosvenorii (luo han guo or monk fruit) is a herbaceous perennial vine of the Cucurbitaceae (gourd) family, native to southern China and northern Thailand. The plant is cultivated for its fruit, whose extract is nearly 300 times sweeter than sugar and has been used in China as a low-calorie sweetener for cooling drinks and in traditional Chinese medicine."
So many Chinese drinks and medicines don't contain much sugar?

How One Man Convinced 200 Ku Klux Klan Members To Give Up Their Robes - "Daryl Davis is a blues musician, but he also has what some might call an interesting hobby. For the past 30 years, Davis, a black man, has spent time befriending members of the Ku Klux Klan. He says once the friendship blossoms, the Klansmen realize that their hate may be misguided. Since Davis started talking with these members, he says 200 Klansmen have given up their robes. When that happens, Davis collects the robes and keeps them in his home as a reminder of the dent he has made in racism by simply sitting down and having dinner with people... when two enemies are talking, they're not fighting. It's when the talking ceases that the ground becomes fertile for violence. If you spend five minutes with your worst enemy — it doesn't have to be about race, it could be about anything...you will find that you both have something in common. As you build upon those commonalities, you're forming a relationship and as you build about that relationship, you're forming a friendship. That's what would happen. I didn't convert anybody. They saw the light and converted themselves."
Funny, I thought shouting at them, calling them bigots and trying to get them fired was the way to go
Of course this is more effective against certain types of hate than others - almost certainly, all of those who keep shouting "fuck white people" know and/or are white people

Your Independent Grocer - Wikipedia - "Your Independent Grocer is a supermarket chain based in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is a unit of National Grocers, itself a unit of Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada's largest food distributor"
Independence doesn't mean what it used to

President's Choice - Wikipedia - ""I approached technicians at one of Canada’s leading dairies and asked them to make a passion fruit sorbet for Loblaws that would be so good that I could put my name on it and proudly call it ‘President’s Choice’. They set to work; the first problem, of course, was to find enough passion fruit concentrate. A long and determined search produced five tons of concentrate in Brazil and we had it flown here to ensure that we’d meet our deadlines. After many batches were sampled, we finally came up with a product that I’m proud to put my name on"...
"During our visit to their plant in Belgium, we discovered that Delacre is the world’s largest producer of tinned assortments of premium biscuits. So then and there we put in the challenge to them: “Let’s create the best assortment of tinned biscuits in the world.” To accomplish this, Delacre laid all of its most costly biscuits on a table along with empty 1 kg tin. We then proceeded to fill it with a selection of your favourites – both dark and milk chocolate. Bichocs, cigarettes russes, etc., etc. When we were done the President of Delacre look at it and said, “This assortment has more chocolate than any of our other assortments – it’s definitely our best.”""

Travellers - Primary Inspection Kiosks - "If you arrive at one of Canada's busiest international airports, you can now verify your identity and make an on screen declaration using primary inspection kiosks."
No face to face interactions with border control needed

STDs in L.A. County are skyrocketing. Officials think racism and stigma may be to blame - "
May 7, 2018. Oct 6 2017, also in the LA Times: Knowingly exposing others to HIV will no longer be a felony in California

London refugees: Lily Allen claims she has NO free space in luxury London flat - "In the BBC-aired clip, when asked if she'd house an unaccompanied child, she tearfully replied: "100 per cent. Who wouldn't?... At the time critics accused her of crying "crocodile tears" and trying to boost her flagging career, with a former British commander who served in Afghanistan adding: "She clearly does not have any understanding of the situation." The following year the mum-of-two - who has also been branded a champagne socialist - was mocked for going back on her refugee pledge after moaning that she'd be homeless at Christmas because her tenants were refusing to leave her multi-million pound flat at the end of their contract."